Freedom and the Self

In Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will, editors Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert presented David Foster Wallace's original challenge to Richard Taylor's argument for fatalism. In this collection of essays, notable philosophers assess Wallace's reply to Taylor as well as other aspects of Wallace's thought. The volume includes an introduction by Cahn and Eckert and essays by William Hasker, Gila Sher, Marcello Oreste Fiocco, Daniel R. Kelly, and Nathan Ballantyne and Justin Tosi, as well as Maureen Eckert. These thinkers explore Wallace's philosophical engagements and unlock key components of his groundbreaking intellectual and creative work.

Contemporary philosophers assess the late author’s ideas on fatalism, free will, and art.The book Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will, published in 2010 by Columbia University Press, presented David Foster Wallace's challenge to Richard Taylor's argument for fatalism. In this anthology, notable philosophers engage directly with that work and assess Wallace's reply to Taylor as well as other aspects of Wallace's thought. With an introduction by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert, this collection includes essays by William Hasker (Huntington University), Gila Sher (University of California, San Diego), Marcello Oreste Fiocco (University of California, Irvine), Daniel R. Kelly (Purdue University), Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham University), Justin Tosi (University of Arizona), and Maureen Eckert. These thinkers explore Wallace's philosophical and literary work, illustrating remarkable ways in which his philosophical views influenced and were influenced by themes developed in his other writings, both fictional and nonfictional. Together with Fate, Time, and Language, this critical set unlocks key components of Wallace's work and its traces in modern literature and thought.